What is Balintawak?

I did some more reading and I see that Mr. Jayme is from the Velez lineage. Cool, thanks again!

Paul

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Henry is really good and a really cool guy. His knowledge of shaolin kung fu and different eskrima styles is enormous. Basically he shows how everything is applicable in combat oriented street fighting. He hasn't made as much of a name for himself as some of the others. He's not out there yelling about himself and saying how great he is. You kind of have to find him. I was lucky I did. He opened a club last month in downtown Cebu, so you might hear his name a little more often. He's the only person who teaches Balintawak that has a cub in downtown Cebu.

I was in Cebu Philippines as a Peace Corps volunteer for 2 years. For the second year of my time there I trained with Henry Jayme at Visayan Martial Arts. I learned Balintawak, Tat Kun Tao, Combat Judo and some Knife techniques. I also met Bobby Tabimina and had one lesson with him just to see how his style was different. If you have any other questions let me know. I trained a lot and know quite a bit about the system.

Pete

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Off topic a bit but I am glad to hear about the Peace Corps these days. My dad was a Peace Corp volunteer in the 70's in Zambales. I always meet people who have gone there in the military but I've met only a handful of Peace Corps volunteers. What kind of work did you do there?

Off topic a bit but I am glad to hear about the Peace Corps these days. My dad was a Peace Corp volunteer in the 70's in Zambales. I always meet people who have gone there in the military but I've met only a handful of Peace Corps volunteers. What kind of work did you do there?

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I taught computers to teachers and students in a provincial high school in Cebu. It was such an awesome experience. I actutally met my wife while I was there so it worked out really well for me. I started training in Balintawak sort of by accident. I was actually looking for a kung fu school and found Henry's website because he teaches Tat Kun Tao. Anyway I called him and started training. For the year I trained it was mostly 1 on 1, sometimes there was another student but mostly it was just Me and Henry. So much fun.

Henry is really good and a really cool guy. His knowledge of shaolin kung fu and different eskrima styles is enormous. Basically he shows how everything is applicable in combat oriented street fighting. He hasn't made as much of a name for himself as some of the others. He's not out there yelling about himself and saying how great he is. You kind of have to find him. I was lucky I did. He opened a club last month in downtown Cebu, so you might hear his name a little more often. He's the only person who teaches Balintawak that has a cub in downtown Cebu.

Pete

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If I ever get the chance to go to Cebu, I will have to look him up. Sounds like you had a great experience!

Basic combat judo disarm techniques. We also would spar a little bit using the balintawak techniques, but one person with a knife and the other with empty hands. We also did drills where each of us had a knife, simultaneous attacking and blocking. It was invented by my instructor, based on an old wari-wari practice where people would be tied together to knife fight. He had some other drills that we would do. He had a lot of techniques that he just showed me, because I was more interested in training in the balintawak and tat kun tao.

Actually they would be tied together at the waist, with both hands free. Basically so you only had a very limited distance to withdraw.

When we used that style to train both people would be thrusting and blocking at the same time. You don't withdraw too far and try to probe the other persons defenses. There were basic angles, strikes and blocks. Certain strikes worked better against other strikes. It's very fast.

Waist-to-waist! Was that only as a training exercise, or was it meant to simulate some particular type of duel?

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We didn't actually tie ourselves together to train like that. It was based on a supposed Wari-Wari practice. Wari-wari is a dialect and type of people that are located around samar/leyte area of the visayas. They have a tradition as fierce warriors. From what my instructor said, long ago they would have knife fighting duels like that. Both people were armed and then tied at the waist. Neither person could retreat it was all very close fighting. That's just the story he told me. I don't know if it's true.